Last week’s series of devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria have so far claimed over 35,000 lives and caused widespread damage in both countries. Dutch researcher Frank Hoogerbeets apparently predicted the tremors in Turkey and Syria three days ago, which recorded a massive 7-8 magnitude earthquake on February 6. His tweet has now gone viral on social media. Additionally, the post warns people in the Indian subcontinent that the region may be next.
The viral post reads, adding the clip. researcher supposedly explaining the danger says “Dutch researcher Frank Hoogerbeets, who three days ago predicted earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, also predicted seismic activity predicting a large earthquake coming from Afghanistan, through Pakistan and India, eventually ending up in the Indian Ocean”.
However, Twitter users flagged the post saying there is no scientific basis for earthquake predictions. “There is always a chance of earthquakes in places with active faults, but specific predictions do no better than random ones in testing. Claims of correlation with planetary alignment have been disproved”.
Are earthquakes predictable?
Earthquake prediction means convincingly communicating its date and time, location and magnitude. According to a report by the United States Geological Survey, scientists have never actually predicted an earthquake this big. They can only predict the probability that a large earthquake will strike a certain location during a certain period of time.
It also provides an example of how earthquake predictions were made decades ago in China based on small earthquakes and strange animal activity. After that, many people decided to sleep outside their homes and saved themselves from the main earthquake. The article continues: “This type of seismic activity is rarely followed by a large earthquake, and unfortunately most earthquakes have no precursors.”
The researcher clarifies
Later, via his social media, Hoogerbeets clarified that the purple streaks shown in the video are atmospheric fluctuations and do not indicate a rupture zone. “(It) can only provide rough estimates and they are not perfect,” he added.
“I am not a ‘soothsayer’, a ‘mystic’ or a ‘prophet’ and I never give exact dates of major earthquakes as some (Turkish) media suggest. I am a researcher who studies the relationship between earthquakes and the positions of the planets, and I have developed a specific software (SSGI) for this purpose,” said Hoogerbeets.
Predicting the location and timing of large earthquakes is of immense interest. Although the region can be classified as earthquake-prone, there is currently no accurate means of predicting when an event will occur in a particular area.
